Steinberg Sequel 2 Operation Manual

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Tutorial 3: Mixing
Output effects
Output Effects, like track effects, are inserts, but in this 
case, they are applied to the Master channel. The “Output 
Effects” tab features two changeable effects and two fixed 
effects.
The two fixed effects are Maximizer and StereoEnhancer. 
Both are controllable via sliders and a Bypass button.
Let’s use the “Maximizer” to raise the overall volume of the 
project and the “StereoEnhancer” to create a more spread 
effect of the mix.
1.Move the “Maximizer” slider until the effect is at a suit-
able level.
2.You can bypass the effect by clicking on the button 
above the effect slider.
3.Crank up the “StereoEnhancer” a little bit to add some 
spread to your project.
For details on each effect and its parameters, see the 
chapter “Effects reference” on page 99.
That’s it for effects. Let’s move on to automation.
Adding automation
Automation allows us to make things like faders, pan, 
knobs, and effects be adjusted automatically. This is very 
handy, especially when you have a lot of tracks in your 
project. Any changes you make will be remembered and 
occur again automatically without you having to worry 
about them.Let’s make the whole song fade out by changing the vol-
ume automation on the Master track.
1.Activate the “Edit/Write Automation” button in Pilot 
Zone.
The “Show Automation” button will be activated automatically and the 
Master track will appear in the Arrange Zone.
2.Make sure that “Volume” is selected on the automation 
pop-up menu of the Master track.
Let’s create a fade-out in the last bar of the project.
3.Create two anchor points by clicking on the volume 
automation line – one at the beginning of the last bar and 
one at the end of the last bar.
To delete an anchor point that you may have created by mistake, select it 
and press [Delete] or [Backspace] on your computer keyboard.
!Load the project “Mixing 8” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 3” folder.
Edit/Write Automation
Make sure Volume is selected here.
Show Automation 
						

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Tutorial 3: Mixing
4.Drag the anchor point at the end of the song down un-
til you can’t drag it any further.
Listen to the fade out automation you have created.
ÖYou can also create automation during playback or re-
cording, simply by wiggling a fader or knob.
Let’s select a parameter to automate. In this case, let’s use 
the “Panner” on the “Synth” track.
1.Make sure that the “Edit/Write Automation” button is 
activated.
2.Select “Panner - Left-Right” from the automation pop-
up menu on the Synth track so that you can see the auto-
mation writing itself to the track.
3.Start playback using the space bar and move the pan-
ner back and forth.
4.Stop playback when you are done.
ÖSequel automatically smoothes out the automation for 
you.
If you don’t like the automation you created, press [Ctrl]/
[Command]+[Z] on your computer keyboard to undo it.Experiment more with this exciting tool! It is so helpful in 
making your project sound great. Remember that pretty 
much any knob, slider or fader can be automated in Sequel.
Removing and disabling automation
To remove automation, proceed as follows:
To remove the track automation for the current parame-
ter select the first option (“Remove Volume Automation”, 
or “Remove Panner – Left-Right Automation”, etc.) from 
the automation pop-up menu.
Note that this will also delete any automation events for this parameter.
To remove all automation data from the selected track, 
select “Remove all Automation of Track” from the automa-
tion pop-up menu.
All automation events will be removed from the selected track.
To remove all effect automation data from the selected 
track, select “Remove Effect Automation” from the auto-
mation pop-up menu.
All effect automation data will be removed from the selected track.
To remove all EQ automation data from the selected 
track, select “Remove EQ Automation” from the automa-
tion pop-up menu.
All EQ automation data will be removed from the selected track.
To enable/disable the master automation, click on the 
“Disable Automation” button on the master track or in the 
Master channel of the mixer. 
The Read and Write functions as well as all automation on the master 
track will be disabled. The initial automation value will be used as a fixed 
value for the whole project. You can still modify this value using the mas-
ter automation controls in the track list. If you deactivate the button again, 
the master automation will be enabled again. 
						

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Tutorial 3: Mixing
Exporting
Now that we have our project mixed, we’ll want to export it 
so that we can send it to others, burn it to a CD, or listen 
to it on our iPod.
Exporting to iTunes
To export your project directly to iTunes, open the Project 
menu and select “Export Project to iTunes”.
Your project will be exported from start to finish in the de-
fault file format of iTunes. This will launch iTunes and you 
will find your exported project is already part of your library 
for easy transfer to your iPod. In iTunes, the project name 
will be shown as the title and your computer user name as 
artist name.
ÖNote that iTunes must be installed on your computer 
for this function to be available.
Exporting audio files
1.To export your project in a different format, open the 
Project menu and select “Export Project as Audio file”. 
2.A dialog opens where you can choose a file name. 
Let’s name ours “First Mixdown”.
ÖThe Export Location is where you wish to save the ex-
ported file on your computer. Click in the field to the right 
to select a destination. Make sure you choose a destina-
tion that is easy to remember. Choosing the Project folder 
is recommended so that your file won’t become erased or 
lost.ÖNormally you’ll want to save your exported file as a 
“Wave File”. This is the most universally compatible file 
type for audio. If the application you need the file for de-
mands a different format, you can choose one from the 
pop-up menu.
3.A bit depth of 16 bit is common for CD burning. Let’s 
use 16 bit.
24 bit will give a higher (better than CD) audio quality, but the file will 
also use up more hard disk space.
4.When you are finished choosing all of your settings, 
select “Export” to begin exporting the file.
The progress bar along the bottom will let you see your progress.
Exporting mp3 files
Using advanced audio compression algorithms, mp3 files 
can be made very small, yet maintaining good audio quality.
This version of Sequel provides a function for exporting your 
projects as mp3 files. This function is limited to 20 trial en-
codings or a period of 30 trial days from the installation date 
(whichever comes first). After this period, the function will 
be disabled until you purchase the mp3 encoder for Sequel.
When the MP3 format is selected, and you click the Ex-
port button, a window opens showing you how many trial 
encodings you have left. You can upgrade to an unlimited 
MP3 export function by clicking the “Go to Online Shop” 
button in the dialog.
This will take you to Steinberg’s online shop where you can purchase the 
upgrade. Note that a working internet connection is required.
!Load the project “Mixing 9” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 3” folder.
!Load the project “Mixing 10” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 3” folder to hear the results of our export. 
						

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Tutorial 3: Mixing
In the Write Project to Audio File dialog, specify the export 
location and the file name in the corresponding fields and 
activate/deactivate the following options for mp3 files:
Audio Mixdown of selected tracks (bouncing)
Sometimes it may be necessary to combine multiple tracks 
of a project into one or to convert CPU-hungry instrument 
tracks to audio. This is called “bouncing tracks”. In order to 
do this, follow these simple steps:
1.Activate solo on the tracks you want to bounce. Bypass 
any global or output effects. You can add them again later.
2.Open the Project menu, choose “Export Project as 
Audio File…” and pick a name and format (preferably 
24-bit WAV but 16-bit will do as well).
3.Locate the newly created audio file and drag it into the 
open project into the empty space below the last track. A 
new track will be created with the bounced file.
4.You can now mute or delete the original tracks and 
adjust your mix. 
Option Description
Bit Rate In this field you can select a bit rate for the mp3 file. As a 
rule, the higher the bit rate, the better the audio quality 
and the larger the file. For stereo audio, 128kBit/s is of-
ten considered to result in “good” audio quality.
Sample Rate Determines the frequency range of the audio – the lower 
the sample rate, the lower the highest audible frequency 
in the audio. 
High Quality 
ModeWhen this is activated, the encoder will use a different re-
sampling mode, which can give better results depending 
on your settings. In this mode, you cannot specify the 
Sample Rate, but only the Bit Rate for the mp3 file.
Insert ID3 Tag When you activate this option, the ID3 tags that you 
specified in the ID3 Tag dialog will be included in the file.
Edit ID3 Tag 
button When you click this button, the ID3 Tag dialog opens, in 
which you can enter information about the file. These text 
strings (tags) can be displayed in most mp3 playback ap-
plications. 
						

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Tutorial 4: Live Pads and
Chain Play mode 
						

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Tutorial 4: Live Pads and Chain Play mode
Introduction
In this chapter, we’ll show you how to use Sequel to make 
Live Performances fun and easy. We’ll take you through 
creating Arranger parts and using the Arranger Page.
Arranger parts
ÖThe following sections make references to tutorial 
projects, located in the default Sequel project folder.
Let’s use Arranger parts to separate intro, verse, chorus, 
and extro into different sections.
1.Activate the Show Arranger Track button above the 
track list.
2.Place the cursor within the Arranger track and press 
and hold [Alt]/[Option] on your computer keyboard. The 
cursor will turn into a pencil.
3.Click and drag to create an Arranger part from bar 1 to 
bar 5. 
4.Create three more parts from bar 5 to 13, 13 to 17, 
and 17 to 25. New parts will be labeled alphabetically 
from A to Z.
You can create up to 26 parts – one for each letter of the alphabet. If you 
want to use a different project, feel free to create as many Arranger parts 
as you like.
Live Mode
Now that we have Arranger parts set up, let’s use them to 
play back our project.
1.Select the Arranger Page in the Multi Zone.
2.Make sure that the Pad Mode is set to “Live Pads” 
mode. This is represented by four small pads in the shape 
of a box.
3.Below the Pad Mode button you can select the Jump 
mode. Make sure it is set to “End”.
4.Click on “Pad A” and it will begin looping the intro.
You can also press the [A] key on your computer keyboard.
Notice that the pad is highlighted. This signifies that the pad is currently 
playing back or active.
5.Click on “Pad B”.
Notice that pad B starts flashing. This signifies that this pad is next in line 
to be played.
The order in which the pads will be played and the exact 
time at which a pad is played depend on the settings to 
the left of the pads.
!Load the project “Live Mode 1” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 4” folder.
!Load the project “Live Mode 2” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 4” folder.
Option Description
Now Jumps to the next section immediately.
4 bars, 
2 barsWhen one of these modes is selected, a grid of 4 or 2 bars (de-
pending on the setting) will be placed on the active Arranger part. 
Whenever the respective grid line is reached, playback will jump 
to the next Arranger part. An example:
Let’s say you have an Arranger part which is 8 bars long and 
Jump mode is set to 4 bars. If the cursor is anywhere within the 
first 4 bars of the Arranger part when you hit the next pad, play-
back will jump to the next part as soon as the end of the fourth 
bar of the Arranger part is reached. If the cursor is anywhere 
within the last 4 bars of the Arranger part, playback will jump to 
the next part at the end of the part.
If a part is shorter than 4 (or 2) bars when this mode is selected, 
playback will jump to the next section at the part end.
1 bar Jumps to the next section at the next bar line.
1 beat Jumps to the next section at the next beat.
End Plays the current section to the end, then jumps to the next section. 
						

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Tutorial 4: Live Pads and Chain Play mode
6.[Alt]/[Option]-click along the bottom of pad A and name 
it “Intro”. 
7.Let’s also name pad B “Verse”, pad C “Chorus”, and 
pad D “Extro”.
8.Click on the “Stop” pad to stop playback.
9.Now you can use the pads to play live. Just click on a 
pad to play it and click on the pad you want to play next to 
queue it up.
Experiment with the Jump modes and have fun creating 
different arrangements with your project.
ÖUsing remote controllers together with this mode allows 
for even more flexibility, see “Remote-controlling Sequel” 
on page 85.
Chain Play Mode
When using the “Live pads” mode, you have to physically 
click each pad as you would like it to be played. This is 
great for a more spontaneous performance, but what if 
you want things planned out a little more? That’s where 
“Chain Play” mode really comes in handy.
1.Change the pad mode to “Chain Play” mode. This is 
represented by three small pads with an arrow underneath.2.Click on “Pad A”. Notice that an “A” appears in the 
“Current Chain” display.
3.Add B, C, and D to the Current Chain display.
You can also drag parts from the Arranger track onto the current chain.
4.Press the space bar on your computer keyboard to 
start playback. Each Arranger part will play in the se-
quence found in the “Current Chain” display. 
Right now the “Current Chain” is playing back our project 
in its original arrangement, so let’s change things a bit.
5.Click on the “Play” button to stop playback.
6.Click the “Reset” button to clear the “Current Chain” 
display.
You can also move the insert cursor in the “Current Chain” and then 
press [Delete] or [Backspace] until the chain is empty.
7.Use the pads to enter a pattern. We’ll use A, B, C, C, 
B, C, C, D.
Feel free to enter any pattern you like!
8.Click “Play” in the Pilot Zone to start playback.
9.Activate the Cycle button.
If Cycle is activated, the Current Chain will loop when it gets to the end. 
If Cycle is off, playback will stop when it reaches the end.
Click and drag to change the order of the parts in the 
current chain.
To delete a part, you can use [Backspace] or [Delete] 
on your computer keyboard. Note that the cursor must be 
placed at the position where you want the part deleted.
!Load the project “Live Mode 3” found in the “Sequel 
Tutorial 4” folder.
Current 
Chain 
						

							7
The Pilot Zone 
						

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The Pilot Zone
Introduction
The Sequel window is divided into three main sections: the 
Pilot Zone (explained below), the Arrange Zone (see the 
chapter “The Arrange Zone” on page 49), and the Multi 
Zone (see the chapter “The Multi Zone” on page 59).
The Pilot Zone in Sequel puts you in the pilot seat so that 
you can control all of Sequel’s main functions.
In this chapter, we are going to take you through the layout 
and functions of the Pilot Zone.
This chapter is great to use as a reference if you aren’t 
sure what a button is or does in the Pilot Zone. 
The Sequel menu (Mac only)
The Sequel menu is only found in the Mac version of Se-
quel and contains a few options related to the Mac OS.
About Sequel
This option allows you to view the exact version of Sequel 
you have installed and also take a look at some of the peo-
ple involved in putting it together.
Preferences
Not used. You will find the main preferences of Sequel on 
the Program Settings Page, see “The Program Settings 
Page” on page 77.
The rest of the functions on this menu are related to the 
Mac OS and are the same as the functions you would find 
in any other program you run on a Mac.
The File, Project and Edit menus
On the Mac, the File, Project and Edit menus appear 
along the top left of the screen.
On the PC, these menus are opened via the three buttons 
in the top left corner of the screen.
The File button/menu
The File menu (opened by clicking the File button in the 
top left corner of the Sequel window under Windows) 
contains the following options:
Help
Selecting this option will open the manual which you are 
viewing now.
The key command for this is [F1].
Pilot Zone Arrange Zone
Multi Zone
File menuProject menuEdit menu 
						

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The Pilot Zone
About Sequel (Windows only)
This option allows you to view the exact version of Sequel 
you have installed and also take a look at some of the peo-
ple involved in putting it together.
Credits and Copyrights
Lists credits and copyright information. This menu also 
contains links to the Steinberg website, e.g. to the Sequel 
merchandise shop.
User Registration…
Selecting this option opens your computer’s web browser 
and takes you to Steinberg’s online registration service. 
We encourage you to register your software! By doing so, 
you are entitled to technical support and being kept aware 
of updates and other news regarding Sequel.
Quit
Selecting this option will exit the program. A dialog will 
open asking you to save your project if you haven’t done 
so already.
 Click “Save” to save your project before you quit.
 Click “Don’t Save” to quit without saving.
 Click “Cancel” if you aren’t sure.
The key command to quit is [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Q].
The Project button/menu
The Project menu (opened by clicking the Project button in 
the top left corner of the Sequel window under Windows) 
contains the following options:
New Project
Selecting this option creates a new blank project.
The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]+[N].
Open Project…
Selecting this option allows you to open an existing project.
The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]+[O].
Save Project
Selecting this option allows you to save your project.
The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]+[S].
Save As…
Selecting this option allows you to save your project under 
a different name.
The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand]+[Shift]+[S].
Manage Projects…
Selecting this option opens a dialog which allows you 
manage all of your Sequel projects.
Along the bottom of the dialog you will find a pop-up 
menu where you can select the location of your projects. 
Any projects located within that location will appear in the 
list on the left side of the dialog. You can then click on a 
project to select it and perform the following functions.
Option Description
Rename… This allows you to change the name of a project.
Delete… Click this button to permanently remove a project from 
the specified location.
Pack… This packs (or compresses) all of the components of your 
project into one file for transfer or backup.
Unpack… This will open packed files and restore file and directory 
structure for editing.
Open Opens the selected project.